Hearing the hearts of missionaries

The past year has been one of tremendous adjustment, emotion, confusion, and anxiety. No one knew that the coronavirus pandemic would last as long as it has or disrupt so much in our lives. The mission world certainly hasn’t been immune to the pandemic, and the past year has necessitated creative ways of doing ministry. The need for creativity in member care also has been heightened as missionaries face challenges brought on by the pandemic, both emotional and spiritual. But no matter what the challenges, it is always good to be able to share about their impact with someone who cares.

Sharing your story

Dr. Curt Thompson, in his book Anatomy of the Soul, notes the vital importance of sharing one’s story with a caring listener so that the right and left brain are able to integrate the emotions that accompany what has happened to the person. Thompson writes, “Transformation requires a collaborative interaction, with one person empathically listening and responding to the other so that the speaker has the experience, perhaps for the first time, of feeling felt by another (author’s italics).”¹ Thompson goes on to say that “One of the wonderfully mysterious outcomes of storytelling and listening is their capacity to enable our left and right modes of processing to integrate. The left and right brain are integratively woven together in a way that doesn’t happen when someone simply reads or listens to text that invokes logical, linear, right-wrong processing.”²

Seeing these needs during the early months of the pandemic, many mission organizations explored ways to step up care for their missionaries.

An example of creative member care

Leaders of the global mission organization Resonate (Christian Reformed Church) came up with an idea to creatively express that care. The leadership made a decision to ask all those serving with Resonate to participate in discussion groups via Zoom. It didn’t matter whether the participants were involved in ministry on a particular mission field or if they worked in some position of administration. All were encouraged to take part in this unique caring opportunity.

Before the discussion groups were launched in June 2020, one of my colleagues in Barnabas International who partners with the Resonate member care team sent me an invitation to be on the facilitator team. In fact Resonate leadership decided the groups would be led by facilitators with no official connection to Resonate, so all but one of the facilitators were from Barnabas International. We were each given responsibility to lead a group of around 10 to 12 people.

Groups met every two weeks over the months of June and July 2020. The facilitators were given four topics to discuss along with a generous amount of freedom in preparing for the groups. The sessions used the online platform Zoom. Each session was to last approximately 75 minutes so that the participants could have sufficient time to share what was on their hearts.

Due to the nature of the pandemic, and the confusion and frustration it was causing, the overall theme for the experience was “Staying Rooted.” The desire of the Resonate leadership was to make sure the missionaries and staff members were well rooted in their faith, in their relationships, and in their ministries. Four specific topics were selected for the missionaries to discuss with facilitators: grief and loss, navigating emotions, experiencing God, and sustaining practices. Each of these topics were geared toward assisting participants to stay grounded in their faith.

As I prepared for the group I facilitated, I sought to bring a mixture of Scriptural assurances and truths to each topic and to provide open questions that would give plenty of opportunity for the participants to share their hearts. A few days before we were to meet, I sent the participants the basic outline of what our time would look like.

The group I facilitated included people from Nigeria, the southern border of Texas, the office in Grand Rapids, the Canadian office in Toronto, and a city in Costa Rica. It was truly a global endeavor. One of the questions early on in the planning of these discussion groups was how people who didn’t necessarily know each other would respond in the groups. I found I didn’t have to worry about that question because they were ready and willing to share with each other as we discussed each of the topics. It was great to see how God brought us together in the group.

One particular situation struck me in a personal way. Being a parent and a grandparent myself, I was able to relate to one of the missionary’s deep losses that the pandemic highlighted: the loss of not being able to travel to see her children and grandchildren. Lockdowns and travel restrictions made it impossible for her to journey overseas and for her family to visit her and her husband. While there were other significant areas of loss, this seemed to touch several in the group.

Positive comments about the experience were shared by those who participated. As people engaged in the discussion, they were able to “off-load” much of what they were feeling and were appreciative of the time given for sharing.

While not all mission organizations have the capacity to tackle this type of endeavor, I would highly recommend that leadership reach out to those under their care. We all need to realize how much the pandemic has taken from our lives and should be willing to process that experience. Our lives will be richer for doing so.

1. Curt Thompson, Anatomy of the Soul: Surprising Connections Between Neuroscience and Spiritual Practices That Can Transform Your Life and Relationships (Carol Stream, IL: Saltriver, an imprint of Tyndale House Publishers, 2010), 137.
2. Ibid.